Joss Whedon Denies The Avengers Cameo Rumors
Posted 02.02.12 by Ryan
A little over a week ago, a rumor began that The Avengers would feature a cameo from one of its current members. In Marvel's comic book continuity, the many Avengers teams consist of popular characters like Wolverine, Dr. Strange, the Thing, Storm, and Spider-Man, to name a few. So far, The Avengers has seemed to follow the comic book, with a team that consists of founding members Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Captain America (Chris Evans) as well as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who both first joined the team during its comic book run in the 1960s. However, could The Avengers see a current member cameo? According to writer-director Joss Whedon, the answer is no.
The rumors began when British actress Jenny Agutter (Logan's Run, An American Werewolf in London), who appears in the movie as a "female council member" according to IMDb, told Radio Times magazine that [WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS] she saw trailers for Iron Man and Spider-Man when she arrived on the Avengers set, indicating that a Spider-Man cameo was possible. While Agutter may have misspoke or been misquoted, Whedon told fans during a Twitter conference earlier this week (via AICN) that the rumors were unfounded.
There is no Spider-Man cameo, but the Avengers do turn off the dark.
Of course, Sony is the studio that owns the movie rights to the Spider-Man character, and not Marvel or its parent company Disney. So Sony would have to be willing to let Marvel "borrow" the character, which seems like a highly unlikely decision, especially during a summer where the studio is debuting its own Spider-Man reboot in July, The Amazing Spider-Man. Still, that didn't stop the Spider-Man rumors from spreading throughout an excitable online fanbase, so Whedon's clarification was required. But, as Whedon points out, The Avengers may be able to steal a little from the Spider-Man musical currently playing on Broadway.
Next Showing: The Avengers opens May 4th